Alan Quotes

Talent is an accident of genes - and a responsibility.

As people get more desperate, history suggests that they're not going to rise in a mighty proletarian tidal wave and wash away their oppressors. They're gonna turn on each other.

It is better to have 100 functions operate on one data structure than to have 10 functions operate on 10 data structures.

It takes time for an acorn to turn into an oak, but the oak is already implied in the acorn.

Remember what we're looking at. Gold is a currency. It is still, by all evidence, a premier currency, that no fiat currency, including the dollar, can match.

I read that Buddha was able to see all of his past lives, and I realized the only way any of these people could do that is by being outside of time.

Of course, you can’t force your mind to be silent. That would be like trying to smooth ripples in water with a flatiron. Water becomes clear and calm only when left alone.

We cannot be more sensitive to pleasure without being more sensitive to pain.

If you write enough musicals you pretty much have a sense of where they should go, what you'll need, and when; how to pull people on that journey.

Since you are the one who has to live with your choices, be sure they are your own.

The difference between a baby and adult is that a baby believes in everything while the adult doubts everything. Babies also only tell the truth until they learn what a lie is.

Try to imagine what it will be like to go to sleep and never wake up... now try to imagine what it was like to wake up having never gone to sleep.

It's not so much that the church has a mission, it's that the mission of God has a church.

I frankly don't care if you agree with my stand on abortion. I take that stand because no other stand is consistent with decent principles, and no other standard is consistent with the will of God.

Nobody's strong enough to stand up under a flood of weak material.

The reason we want to go on and on is because we live in an impoverished present.

To go out of your mind at least once a day is tremendously important. By going out of your mind, you come to your senses.

If you ask footballers to pick out the player they most admire, so many of them will pick Paul Scholes.

The quantum is that embarrassing little piece of thread that always hangs from the sweater of space-time. Pull it and the whole thing unravels.

History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket.

You are that vast thing that you see far, far off with great telescopes.

If you want to read about love and marriage, you've got to buy two separate books.

There is no coming toward it or going away from it; it is, and you are it.

Ideas are bulletproof.

If light is outlawed, then only outlaws will be able to see where they're going.

Let me not be afraid to defend the weak because of the anger of the strong, nor afraid to defend the poor because of the anger of the rich.

Tonight I'm the designated drinker.

Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.

When trust is lost, a nation's ability to transact business is palpably undermined.

we are the living links in a life force that moves and plays around and through us, binding the deepest soils with the farthest stars.

Life is a flash of lightning in the dark of night. It is a brief time of tremendous potential.

View the past as your enemy, and it will be an albatross. View it as your friend, and it will give you wings.

Eventually we grow weary of seeking treasures outside ourselves and we begin to look within. There we discover that the gold we sought, we already are.

I'm usually just enjoying life.

When you invest your time and energy in stuff that drags you down, you die a little bit every day.

Once you've learned to think you can't stop. And an enormous number of people devote their lives to keeping their minds busy and feel extremely uncomfortable with silence.

Don't postpone joy until you have learned all of your lessons. Joy is your lesson.

The source of all light is in the eye.

We are fit for the work of God only when we have wept over it, prayed about it, and then we are enabled by Him to tackle the job that needs to be done.

God is a frequency. Stay tuned.

Do you see yourself as a victim of the world, or do you see yourself as the world?

The fact that every part of this ship was built by the low bidder.

Anyone who says rock 'n' roll is a passing fad or a flash-in-the-pan trend along the music road has rocks in the head.

The safety-obsessed church lacks the inner dynamic to foster profound missional impact in our time.

Love is heaven and fear is hell. Where you place your attention is where you live.

I'll be on my third honeymoon, so I'm more of an authority than I care to be.

Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you what you think it is you want to hear.

Life is like a sandwich! Birth as one slice, and death as the other. What you put in-between the slices is up to you. Is your sandwich tasty or sour?

In software systems it is often the early bird that makes the worm.

I felt pride, wonderful pride, when I was captain. It was an honour to take over from Labby. Anybody who has ever captained a big club, which Everton are, will tell you it's a great honour.