patently true words of wisdom

I'm not sure sayings are meant to be true -- they are just meant to be shorthand for the concept you're actually suggesting. They don't make an argument, they just summarize the thrust of it. Hence needing one for each of two opposite viewpoints.

― nabisco, Friday, 13 March 2009 18:08 (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

"Many a mickle makes a muckle"

"never take a lover the first year of your marriage"

"let the music be your master/won't you heed your master's call"

"I love my work. I could watch it all day."

"If you can't beat 'em, run like hell."

Life is like a box of chocolates... you never know what you're gonna get.

pretty lame but true!

It's not true in the sense that you know what you're going to get in a box of chocolates because it usually tells you on the lid.

Homer: Bart, a woman is like beer. They look good, they smell good, and you'd step over your own mother just to get one.

also you can be 99.9% sure that everything in the box will fall under the relatively narrow category of "chocolates"

Placeholder for Youtube of that Monty Python sketch.

ditto for youtube of Basil The Rat finale

Eat your vegetables. They're good for you.

Don't lie, cheat, steal, or kill.

^^^ Patently untrue.

It works as a general guideline.

Take broad issue with lie and cheat and steal, minor quibbles with kill.

For starters, as often as not never lying can be a pretty aggressive kind of vanity.

tbh, I'm having trouble thinking of very many things at all that are patently true, much less adages.

LA TEMPS DETRUIT TOUT

lolz

I looked up the Ten Commandments, thinking "Ah ha! Some age-old un-fuckwith-able wisdom!" I'd forgotten that they're just weird.

xpost

Cheese, wine.

"Waste not, want not."

In certain situations, this is undeniably true.

Yeah it's pretty true, almost a version of the mickle/muckle tautology that got me thinking of this thread.

What if you have a family of 30 and one 10 oz. steak and you don't waste the steak

You will be wantin' something fierce

What if you have a family of 30 and one 10 oz. steak and you don't waste the steak

If you have a family of 30, you should be running a ranch.

In Utah.

I think the most natural reading of "waste not, want not" is that if you don't waste a thing you won't be in want of that thing itself at a later date, not absence of general want. But I'll allow the objection anyway.

In the long run, we are all dead.

-- John Maynard Keynes --

Apres moi, l'deluge.

-- George W. Bush --

I'm going by that limited interpretation, too, NV, but still: no matter how non-wastefully I dole out that food, I'm still going to wish I had more of it

not if you just ate it yourself, with a patato

potato

baked, with butter and chives

Then you wouldn't be wasting it, would you?

well your brood might think so

Wasting it would be using the steak to prop up a piece of furniture on an uneven floor or putting it on your head while doing gymnastics.

my post was in response to nabisco's last post, not yours.

"Rome wasn't build in a day"

As Miles Kington observed, this is true but completely banal. More interesting is that the decline of the Roman empire didn't happen overnight, so a better phrase would be: "Rome wasn't destroyed in a day".

Miles Kington!

"A penny is a penny earned."

This seems pretty self-evident.

Er. "A penny saved." Unless, I guess, you're investing it. Then it might be lost.

from an accounting standpoint, it would depend on where you got the penny whether it was actually earned.

Wait, what? Sarahel, that's my point -- no matter how non-wastefully you use something, you might still find yourself wanting later, right? Like no matter how economical I am with my last $500, I will still wind up broke and wishing I had $500

if you have a penny to save, you must have "earned" it somewhere to start with, so how does not spending it equal earning it again? if i earned it and then spend it frivolously i still earned a penny. at some point i have to spend it, or esle it has no value, right?

should be: a penny saved is a penny saved.

keep going guys!

But rent, what if you have earned that penny through the effortful fortitude required not to spend it?

before you judge someone, steal his shoes and travel for at least 1600 metres

huh? I was talking about accounting vis a vis a penny saved is a penny earned, not wasting not, wanting not ... if the penny came from work, then it would be earned. For most businesses, if the penny came from work or investments, then it would be earned, but if the penny was given to you by a donor, came from a business owner's personal funds, then it wouldn't be considered earned.

cases where penny wouldn't be considered "earned"
- individual - penny given to you as a gift, for the purposes of the earned income tax credit, any penny received from personal investments including rental property (unless one is a real estate professional)
- partnership/LLC/S-Corporation - penny put in by partner or shareholder is a contribution to capital
- tax exempt (non-profit) corporation - penny given as a donation would be contributed income, not earned.

I don't know what anyone is talking about anymore

xp to rent: if you saved the penny, you would still have another penny of income, the question is whether you earned that penny to begin with. If that penny came from a trust fund, for example. The penny was probably earned by someone at some point, but you could have received the penny without earning it yourself.

We're talking about John Houseman and the old Smith Barney commercials.

lol xp me neither

no, b/c i meant "earned" in the broadest possible sense, ie. something i did at some point brought me together with this penny. but still, one exeption i would take when saying that a penny has been earned:

-when you go to put a penny in the tip jar, look at it closely, exchange a glance with the barrista, and put it back in your pocket

that's different (i think) b/c you'd have already counted that penny as earned, at some earlier point.

Ní ólann na mná leann ach imíonn sé lena linn.

Women do not drink much, yet the drink disappears whenever they arrive.

Is teann madra ar a thairseacht féin.

Every dog is bold on its own doorstep.

Céard a dhéanfadh mac an chait ach luch a mharú?

What would the cat's son do but kill a mouse?

these appear on the single serving sugar packets at work. i could go on. the best of them achieve the mysticism of good fortune cookies.

pogue mahone

amirite

what if that thing you did was just being born to someone with money who gave it you?

urirong

póg mo thóin

sure i guess if you were given that penny we can say you didnt earn it, but then whether you save it or for how long, technically speaking, and providing it's not earning interest, is immaterial when assessing it's worth.

yeah, but the proverb doesn't talk about worth, it talks about earning.

yeah but you don't suddenly earn 0.01 if that same 0.01 didn't count as earned yesterday, but then this morning you decided not to buy a loose candy corn.

but then again yes okay, if all that changes is the semantics i guess.

Are you guys serious? The thrust of the adage is that a penny you save adds exactly as much to your balance as a penny of income. Even the nitpick about the word "earned" is a part of the sentiment -- the suggestion is that being thrifty is every bit as profitable as earning well.

(I understand the obvious nitpick that saving can't net you any more money than you bring in, whereas income can, but the thrust of the thing isn't particularly untrue.)

It's not true in the sense that you know what you're going to get in a box of chocolates because it usually tells you on the lid.

― Linseed Oil is maximum, and that's the law (Noodle Vague), Friday, March 13, 2009 2:33 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol

^^ yeah - chocolates

im going for walk

I wasn't disputing the sentiment, I was nitpicking the word "earned"

However one can read the statement as a justification for the capitalist/investor moneyed classes - that they are not parasites on society, and they have just as much right to their wealth as those that work for a living, because saving money is also a skill.

Actually, it is.

So I take it you would self-classify as liberal, then? :)

Many a man owes his success to his first wife and his second wife to his success.

it's easier to stay out than to get out

the future isn't what it used to be

"The future is already here, it just isn't well distributed yet." - Bruce Sterling

there are more pleasant things to do than beat up people
-m ali

Many a man owes his success to his first wife and his second wife to his success.

This is repugnant.

we can't all be heroes because someone has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by

truth is often repugnant

it's easier to stay out than to get out

It's patently true, but where's the wisdom? It's like saying that water makes you wet.

It's a wise child who knows his own father. And that water makes you wet.

the wisdom is that you're better off not getting involved in a shitstorm in the first place.

I'm not better off staying in bed all day. Tried that, wasn't a big earner.

I would self-classify as a liberal. But I was thinking about the historical origins and background of the saying. Benjamin Franklin popularized it, but it dates back to the 1600s, when a lot of the tenets of capitalism that we take for granted as being acceptable (in the societal sense) weren't acceptable at all. I'm not sure how much (if any) the historical context changes the meaning of the statement - for Franklin it was about thrift and frugality and not about "earning" or "earned vs. inherited wealth," but I think a lot of his proverbs were paraphrasing and restating older shared wisdom.

when walking through a melon patch, don't adjust your sandals

t's easier to stay out than to get out

It's patently true, but where's the wisdom? It's like saying that water makes you wet.

I don't know if that's true. Sometimes it's easier to get out than resist going back in. I mean isn't that the opposite of the conventional wisdom from 12-step programs? Staying clean is the hardest part?

it dates back to the 1600s, when a lot of the tenets of capitalism that we take for granted as being acceptable (in the societal sense) weren't acceptable at all

I get you, I think. There's old wisdom, and then there's outdated old wisdom. I guess if you go back far enough, the wisdom would be "Eat as much fat and sugar as possible so you'll live through the winter, maybe."

I mean isn't that the opposite of the conventional wisdom from 12-step programs? Staying clean is the hardest part?

Only proves the point. If you'd stayed out in the first place, you'd never have to get out at all.

anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung

Who the fuck ever said that?

it's weird reading about - lots of things were considered usury and were illegal, or at least, un-Christian. For example, there were strict laws about how much you could mark up a product you bought wholesale or sell a product that you made, grew, etc. Lending money with interest was also considered usury, and was seriously frowned upon by the Church, hence banking and finance becoming the province of the Jews.

Only proves the point. If you'd stayed out in the first place, you'd never have to get out at all.

True enough. But I think that there are examples of this being false - involving natural curiosity and plot devices in a gazillion horror movies.

xpost Interesting. I didn't know that. About Xtians vs Jews, I mean.

It makes horrible horrible sense.

it is easier to get forgiveness than permission

Voltaire, Kenan

xp NO IT ISN'T!

Are you just fucking with us by googling for the worst old saying possible?

xp Well Voltaire can suck it.

Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there

Kenan can I punch you in the mouth?

Sorry for punching you, can you ever ever forgive me?

Don't eat the yellow snow.

People who think they know everything are very irritating to those of us who do

xxp

Point taken, but it's a stupid point. If you want to punch me in the mouth, there are other, better saying about why it's better not to.

I think it was something that went from being completely illegal (lending money w/interest) to being legalized out of necessity (governments not having the funds to fight wars or for major building projects) and was periodically cracked down upon.

Friends may come and go, but enemies accumulate

(could apply in non-mouth-punching situations yanno)

xp Oh please stop this

Protestantism's coming to terms with capitalism is kinda historically confusing. They accepted it before the Catholics, which is why the major European centers of finance are in Protestant countries.

Don't eat the yellow snow.

Hell, don't eat any snow. Rainwater is for houseplants. I demand filtration.

One is not superior merely because one sees the world as odious.

which is why the major European centers of finance are in Protestant countries.

And why Catholics continue to fetishize poverty and suffering?

xpost Ok that's a good one

if you post enough sayings on a website, someone will become personally affronted, rather than just stopping his clicking and picking up a book.

as you sow, so shall you reap ... definitely applies in mouth-punching scenarios.

That was Chateaubriand, K

We are what we pretend to be
-Vonnegut

Protestantism's coming to terms with capitalism is kinda historically confusing. They accepted it before the Catholics, which is why the major European centers of finance are in Protestant countries.

― what happened? I'm confused. (sarahel)

Max Weber ffs.

if you post enough sayings on a website, someone will become personally affronted, rather than just stopping his clicking and picking up a book.

A book of what? Sayings?

We are what we pretend to be

Always liked that, too. But I don't think it's "patently" true.

I think the poverty and suffering has less to do with integration of capitalism and more to do with human frailties and the relative powerless of man to god. Historically, Protestants are more keen on the death penalty than Catholics.

I think the poverty and suffering has less to do with integration of capitalism and more to do with human frailties and the relative powerless of man to god.

No. No I guarantee you, it's about capitalism. ;)

Well, it's about man's inhumanity to man, capitalist or whatever. God doesn't do this to us, we do it to each other. The causes are traceable.

Always be smarter than the people who hire you

I think the Protestants are more optimistic about man conquering his sinful nature. So there is a relationship to capitalism and the free market. It's a somewhat similar logic to government regulation.

This is not a pipe.

Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent
-E Roosevelt

Many men die at 25 and arent buried til they're 75
-B Franklin

It's ok to laugh in the bedroom as long as you don't point

HA!

point with your finger or with another appendage?

Finger, assumedly, although it's good for other appendages to have a sense of direction and purpose.

Always be smarter than the people who hire you

fast track to the middle

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_wAVASRYDrEw/S_OMeid7qKI/AAAAAAAABLs/6qLvkZ2XX_Q/s400/graffiti+5.jpg

wtf @ this thread

Douglas Adams: "I love deadlines. I like the wooshing sound they make as they fly by."

I don't know what anyone is talking about anymore

― nabisco, Friday, March 13, 2009 3:07 PM (1 year ago)