Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
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daily quotation server archives
In the late 90’s I started (a good decade for starts) a daily quotation server project at www.quoteserver.ca. The domain is now defunct—some pages are partially viewable at the Way Back Machine.
Below is the list of quotes I had collected by the end of the life of the project. Most are about love—duh—and a few are jolly jests from funny trenches. You know, that place where mustard gas makes your eyes water.
The quotes weren’t scraped from quote archives—each is meaningful and hand-picked.
the quote archive
And now for full list of 1,700+ other things worth reading. Such as everything Dorothy Parker has written and ... yes, even the Pinky and Brain quotes, which are a special kind of special.
Quote collections about love, heart, desire, life, death, god, mind, science.
Feeling lucky? Read 10 random quotes. Well, will you, punk?
Quotes about desire
574
Fire and Ice
661
What is it men in women do require?
The lineaments of gratified desire.
What is it women do in men require?
The lineaments of gratified desire.
The lineaments of gratified desire.
What is it women do in men require?
The lineaments of gratified desire.
MS. Notebooks, 1793, p.99
849
I dare not ask a kiss;
I dare not beg a smile;
Lest having that, or this,
I might grow proud the while.
No, no, the utmost share
Of my desire, shall be
Only to kiss the air,
That lately kissed thee.
I dare not beg a smile;
Lest having that, or this,
I might grow proud the while.
No, no, the utmost share
Of my desire, shall be
Only to kiss the air,
That lately kissed thee.
To Electra
967
There are two tragedies in life.
One is to lose your heart’s desire.
The other is to gain it.
One is to lose your heart’s desire.
The other is to gain it.
991
Foeda est in coitu et brevis voluptas
Et taedet Veneris statim peractae.
[Delight of lust is gross and brief
And weariness treads on desire.]
Et taedet Veneris statim peractae.
[Delight of lust is gross and brief
And weariness treads on desire.]
1070
I do desire we may be better strangers.
As You Like It, I.vii.276
1127
They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,
Love and desire and hate:
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.
Love and desire and hate:
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.
Vitae Summa Brevis Spem Nos Vetat Incohare Longham
1159
And Love! could thou and I with Fate conspire
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits—and then
Re-mould it nearer to the Heart’s Desire!
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits—and then
Re-mould it nearer to the Heart’s Desire!
Rubaiyat, LXXII, trans. by Edward Fitzgerald (1st ed.)
1272
If I seek a lovelier part,
Where I travel goes my heart;
Where I stray my thought must go;
With me wanders my desire.
Best to sit and watch the snow,
Turn the lock, and poke the fire.
Where I travel goes my heart;
Where I stray my thought must go;
With me wanders my desire.
Best to sit and watch the snow,
Turn the lock, and poke the fire.
Hearthside
1471
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory out of desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in a forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory out of desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in a forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
The Waste Land
1581
Be thou my friend forever blest
Have friends selected from the best
Have all the sweethearts you desire
but be my sweetheart for this hour.
Have friends selected from the best
Have all the sweethearts you desire
but be my sweetheart for this hour.
Autograph Albums and Bible of Ella Beaver Calhoun
1587
Desire not to live long but to live well,
How long we live not years, but actions tell.
How long we live not years, but actions tell.
Autograph Albums and Bible of Ella Beaver Calhoun
1616
Mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible and without desire. The reality of your own nature should determine the speed. If you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
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Graphical Abstract Design Guidelines
Clear, concise, legible and compelling.
Making a scientific graphical abstract? Refer to my practical design guidelines and redesign examples to improve organization, design and clarity of your graphical abstracts.
▲ Graphical Abstract Design Guidelines — Clear, concise, legible and compelling.
"This data might give you a migrane"
An in-depth look at my process of reacting to a bad figure — how I design a poster and tell data stories.
▲ A poster of high BMI and obesity prevalence for 185 countries.
He said, he said — a word analysis of the 2020 Presidential Debates
Building on the method I used to analyze the 2008, 2012 and 2016 U.S. Presidential and Vice Presidential debates, I explore word usagein the 2020 Debates between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
▲ Analysis of word usage by parts of speech for Trump and Biden reveals insight into each candidate.
Points of Significance celebrates 50th column
We are celebrating the publication of our 50th column!
To all our coauthors — thank you and see you in the next column!
▲ Nature Methods Points of Significance: Celebrating 50 columns of clear explanations of statistics.
(read)
Uncertainty and the management of epidemics
When modelling epidemics, some uncertainties matter more than others.
Public health policy is always hampered by uncertainty. During a novel outbreak, nearly everything will be uncertain: the mode of transmission, the duration and population variability of latency, infection and protective immunity and, critically, whether the outbreak will fade out or turn into a major epidemic.
The uncertainty may be structural (which model?), parametric (what is `R_0`?), and/or operational (how well do masks work?).
This month, we continue our exploration of epidemiological models and look at how uncertainty affects forecasts of disease dynamics and optimization of intervention strategies.
▲ Nature Methods Points of Significance column: Uncertainty and the management of epidemics.
(read)
We show how the impact of the uncertainty on any choice in strategy can be expressed using the Expected Value of Perfect Information (EVPI), which is the potential improvement in outcomes that could be obtained if the uncertainty is resolved before making a decision on the intervention strategy. In other words, by how much could we potentially increase effectiveness of our choice (e.g. lowering total disease burden) if we knew which model best reflects reality?
This column has an interactive supplemental component (download code) that allows you to explore the impact of uncertainty in `R_0` and immunity duration on timing and size of epidemic waves and the total burden of the outbreak and calculate EVPI for various outbreak models and scenarios.
▲ Nature Methods Points of Significance column: Uncertainty and the management of epidemics.
(Interactive supplemental materials)
Bjørnstad, O.N., Shea, K., Krzywinski, M. & Altman, N. (2020) Points of significance: Uncertainty and the management of epidemics. Nature Methods 17.
Background reading
Bjørnstad, O.N., Shea, K., Krzywinski, M. & Altman, N. (2020) Points of significance: Modeling infectious epidemics. Nature Methods 17:455–456.
Bjørnstad, O.N., Shea, K., Krzywinski, M. & Altman, N. (2020) Points of significance: The SEIRS model for infectious disease dynamics. Nature Methods 17:557–558.