The best evidence for the existence of intelligent life

ByHeather

The best evidence for the existence of intelligent life in the universe lies in the fact that they have steadfastly refused to contact us.

— Richard Boyd

I saw this quote as a letter-to-the-editor in one of the San Francisco Bay Area papers several years ago. I love the twisted logic and the inherent presumptions that it contains. Some attempts at logical arguments for the existence of God share these logical fallacies.

I do not know who Richard Boyd is. At the time the newspaper simply indicated that he was from Berkeley. A quick Google search yields a philosophy professor at Cornell who previously taught at UC Berkeley. Could be. In any case, it is a delightful quote that I have repeated dozens of times.

Thank you Mr. Boyd.

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Eleanor Roosevelt’s 3 (+1) rules for happiness

ByHeather

Someone once asked me what I regarded as the three most important requirements for happiness. My answer was: A feeling that you have been honest with yourself and those around you; a feeling that you have done the best you could both in your personal life and in your work; and the ability to love others.

But there is another basic requirement, and I can’t understand now how I forgot it at the time…

Shoeless Paraprosdokian

ByHeather

Before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, you will be a mile away and he won’t have any shoes.

— Unknown

How could I resist? After yesterday’s exhortation to embrace empathy, it seemed only fitting to also quote a brilliant variation on the old moccasins quote.

It turns out that the above quote is a perfect example of a paraprosdokian – a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe the first part. Other good examples include my previous post from Ellen DeGeneres or my all time favorite, “When I die I want to go peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather did . . . and not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car.”

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