Singapore Expats

'The Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education and the fine arts.
The Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war.
The Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order.
And the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for economic affairs.

Their names in Newspeak: Minitrue, Minipax, Miniluv, Miniplenty'.

1984
George Orwell

'Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty; it is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed.'
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quote ... 6dLi8et.99

Attributed to Benjamin Franklin, amongst others.

Liberty and freedom. My life-long pursuit.

Confucious: 'Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance

Bertrand Russell: 'One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision

Charles Darwin: 'Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge

Shakespeare: 'The Foole doth thinke he is wise, but the wiseman knowes himselfe to be a Foole

"Aid organisations are businesses dressed up like Mother Theresa."
Linda Polman, author of the Crisis Caravan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxfam

“We can have a world at peace instead of all wanting to fight.”

http://www.speakingofchina.com/yangxifu ... f-grandma/

Two quotes from the late Lemmy of Motorhead:

'He told the [BBC Radio1] DJ Andy Kershaw: “If Motörhead moved in next to you, your lawn would die.”
lol

'Lemmy, who is rumoured to drink a bottle of Jack Daniels Day, reveals that he has cut back on the habit. "I stopped drinking Jack Daniel's and Coke because the sugar in the Coke wasn't good for my diabetes," he tells Classic Rock.

...and another ...
' [He] once said he never got hangovers because 'to get hangovers you need to stop drinking'.'

As Hilaire Belloc wrote: “Always keep a-hold of nurse... for fear of finding something worse.”


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And FWIW, his name rang a bell but nothing greater, so Wiki -> 'Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc 27 July 1870[1] – 16 July 1953) was an Anglo-French writer and historian. He was one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. He was known as a writer, orator, poet, sailor, satirist, man of letters, soldier and political activist.'

Not only does he understand food culture. Anthony Bourdain.....

https://www.facebook.com/AlternativeWor ... =3&theater

"Man surprised me most about humanity. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future. He lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived." - Dalai Lama

Stop and smell the roses, peeps.

"I’m a collector. I’ve always just seemed to collect personalities, ideas. " ~ David Bowie

"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."
Winston Churchill

The quote is in bold, the rest is to provide necessary context...
[The quote concerns the financial stability of an Italian bank].

'The problem with statements like "fall in deposits is limited" is that no one can possibly know if they are true. We can't expect Viola [the CEO] to admit the problem is serious.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker set the believability standard in 2011.
Juncker admitted "When it becomes serious, you have to lie". At the time, he was Luxembourg prime minister.'

re: Juncker, from Wiki
'Jean-Claude Juncker is a Luxembourgish politician who has been President of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, since 2014.'

Haha.... a couple of quotable lines in this excerpt from an opinion piece about using contact-less payment cards in British pubs, and them being the future payment method of choice more broadly in future...
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'Unusually for a Brit, I am quite in favour of tipping. In any transaction, it is the discretionary part that carries by far the most information. Meaning is overwhelmingly conveyed not by what you do, but by the things you do beyond what you’re obliged to do.

Some people don’t buy this. They claim that although service in the United States appears to be good, it is ‘really just insincere’, since people who appear to be friendly are merely chasing tips. But good customer service is a bit like sex for young men: you don’t really care what the motivation is just so long as you get some.'
http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/01/how- ... you-think/

That reminds of David Mitchell talking about British customer service, sort of the reverse of the idea of insincere US service

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LiDTKEF1ek