Sheridan: Con-Law

PERFECTION

In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not

when there is no longer anything to add, but when

there is no longer anything to take away.

—Antoine de Saint-Exupery

IGNORANCE IS TEMPORARY, STUPIDITY IS FOREVER

From Aristophanes, (we are assured by a confidential informant of untested reliability), the ancient Athenian comedic poet and playright:

Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown; ignorance can be educated, drunkeness sobered -- but stupidity lasts forever.

Which reminds me that I have an investigator, Holmes, affectionaely called Sherlock, of course, who said of a man who, if he didn't commit the offense with which he was charged, committed one that was indistinguishable from it:      

There's no defense against stupidity.

However it may be argued in mitigation.

Let's see, there's also:

    Beauty fades, stupidity is forever...

    What we lack in quality, we make up for in stupidity...

    A dream lasts for a night, but reality lasts forever...

Digital information lasts forever or five years -- whichever comes     first.

    Altruism is the reverse, and stupidity is where both sides lose.

And last but not least:

Computers can never replace human stupidity.

MAXIMUM DANGER

"The period of maximum danger is when all of the rational arguments are on your side."

Baldassare Conticello
Director of Archaeology
Pompeii, Italy

-who was opposing local authorities seeking to build a road over his dig, when a reassuring assistant told him not to worry about the upcoming council meeting, as all of the rational arguments were on his side...

Quote from a NYT story on the dispute, c. 1987.