Propositions almost certainly true

Arthur C. Clarke formulated the following three "laws" of prediction:

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is probably wrong.

2, The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

TANSTAAFL

"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch."

— Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)

"When one teaches, two learn."

— Robert A. Heinlein

"Secrecy begets tyranny."

— Robert A. Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land)

"A desire not to butt into other people's business is at least eighty percent of all human wisdom."

— Robert A. Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land)

"Never tease an old dog; he might have one bite left."

— Robert A. Heinlein (Time Enough for Love)

"But goodness alone is never enough. A hard, cold wisdom is required for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil."

— Robert A. Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land)

"If you've got the truth you can demonstrate it. Talking doesn't prove it."

— Robert A. Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land)

"All generalizations are false, including this one."

Mark Twain

"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."

Mark Twain

"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it."

Mark Twain

"What would men be without women? Scarce, sir, mighty scarce."

Mark Twain

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."

Mark Twain

"A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be."

Albert Einstein

"Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves."

Albert Einstein

"Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either."

Albert Einstein

"He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed."

Albert Einstein

"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"

Albert Einstein

"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."

Albert Einstein

"Never trust a fart."

-Jack Nicholson

"Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid."

-John Wayne

Remember,Wherever you go.There you are!-Yogi Berra

Anything worth doing is probably also worth doing half-A#$ed

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

Edmund Burke

The ever amusing but useless tautology or vacuous truth, but a truth nonetheless.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. -- Albert Einstein

You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.
-- Robin Williams

That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part. -- Thomas Jefferson

There is more to life than increasing its speed. -- Mahatma Gandhi

Experience is a dear teacher, but fools will learn at no other.
-- Benjamin Franklin

I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.
-- Benjamin Franklin

Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing. -- Oscar Wilde

I haven't failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
-- Thomas Edison

The amusing self-negating, self-contradictory, and somewhat derogatory forced marriage of the concepts of worth and a slang term for something not worth much. This is probably best understood as an indirect, disguised, maybe passive-aggressive?, argument that whatever is being discussed is not worth doing.

By definition, the original statement cannot be true unless in all cases there is nothing worth doing. This proposition does not seem to be a truth.

“It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the
established authorities are wrong”

Voltaire



"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."

Aldous Huxley

Better is the Enemy of,Good Enough!-Dickens

"[W]hen you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth ...."

The Sign of the Four, ch. 6 (1890)
Sherlock Holmes in The Sign of the Four (Doubleday p. 111)

When the chips are down the Buffalo is empty.

Lee

E=mc2...except that c changes.

-Blast

all models are wrong, but some are useful. - George Box

- Eric

Good judgment comes from experience, Experience comes from bad judgement. - Multiple Sources

- Eric

O.K. Dweste:
Anything worth doing is worth doing well. And is also worth doing poorly.

Your move!

Same move as earlier, NAro, but thanks for playing!

I admit I cannot see how this double-headed proposition can be true, or almost certainly true. As said in an earlier era, pray you good sir, enlighten me

Appropos of the sporting season:

You win some, you lose some, some get rained out but you suit up for 'em all.

Grrrr. I'm up against a Grand Master! O.k. O.k... try this:
Nothing worth doing is only worth doing if you can do it well. Doing a thing poorly may also have some worth.

[quote=NAro Nothing worth doing is only worth doing if you can do it well. Doing a thing poorly may also have some worth. [/quote]

I believe the first sentence is negated by the second, but I agree second sentence is true.

I really appreciate your effort on this stuff; you have made the thread much more interesting. Thanks!

I thought I made a mistake once,But I was wrong!-Ben Franklin If at Foist,You don't Succeed...Keep on Suckin' till you do suck seed,Nyuck,Nyuck!-Curly Howard

Never do a bad job good.

Unless it is the right thing to do,then do a good bad job.

"Sometimes bad is bad"

Huey Lewis

Where i work one of the lines my co-workers tell me is never do a bad job good because you will always wind up with the bad jobs. I have always had the problem of doing the the bad jobs good but that also keeps me employed.

The two most prevalent elements in the universe are hydrogen and human stupidity.

Albert Einstein

And on that note:

Never attribute to malice anything more easily explained by stupidity.

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

Robert J. Hanlon, Murphy's Law book two: More reasons why things go wrong! (1980) ISBN 0843106743 by Arthur Bloch page 52.

Wikipedia:

According to Joseph Bigler, the quotation first came from Robert J. Hanlon of Scranton, Pennsylvania, as a submission for a book compilation of various jokes related to Murphy's law published in 1980 entitled Murphy's Law Book Two, More Reasons Why Things Go Wrong.[1] The name was inspired by Occam's razor.[2]

A similar quotation appears in Robert A. Heinlein's 1941 short story "Logic of Empire" ("You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity"); this was noticed in 1996 (five years before Bigler identified the Robert J. Hanlon citation) and first referenced in version 4.0.0 of the Jargon File,[3] with speculation that Hanlon's Razor might be a corruption of "Heinlein's Razor". "Heinlein's Razor" has since been defined as variations on Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity, but don't rule out malice.[4] Yet another similar epigram ("Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence") has been widely attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte.[5] Another similar quote appears in Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774): "...misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are certainly much less frequent."