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  fortune index  all fortunes 
  
 |  |  | #4973 |  | No discipline is ever requisite to force attendance upon lectures which are really worth the attending.
 -- Adam Smith, "The Wealth of Nations"
 
 |  |  |  | #4974 |  | No matter who you are, some scholar can show you the great idea you had was had by someone before you.
 
 |  |  |  | #4975 |  | No wonder you're tired!  You understood so much today. 
 |  |  |  | #4976 |  | Normally our rules are rigid; we tend to discretion, if for no other reason than self-protection.  We never recommend any of our graduates, although we
 cheerfully provide information as to those who have failed their courses.
 -- Jack Vance, "Freitzke's Turn"
 
 |  |  |  | #4977 |  | Not only is this incomprehensible, but the ink is ugly and the paper is from the wrong kind of tree.
 -- Professor, EECS, George Washington University
 
 I'm looking forward to working with you on this next year.
 -- Professor, Harvard, on a  senior thesis.
 
 |  |  |  | #4978 |  | `O' LEVEL COUNTER CULTURE Timewarp allowed: 3 hours.  Do not scrawl situationalist graffiti in the
 margins or stub your rollups in the inkwells.  Orange may be worn.  Credit
 will be given to candidates who self-actualise.
 
 (1) Compare and contrast Pink Floyd with Black Sabbath and say why
 neither has street credibility.
 (2) "Even Buddha would have been hard pushed to reach Nirvana squatting
 on a juggernaut route."  Consider the dialectic of inner truth
 and inner city.
 (3) Discuss degree of hassle involved in paranoia about being sucked
 into a black hole.
 (4) "The Egomaniac's Liberation Front were a bunch of revisionist
 ripoff merchants."  Comment on this insult.
 (5) Account for the lack of references to brown rice in Dylan's lyrics.
 (6) "Castenada was a bit of a bozo."  How far is this a fair summing
 up of western dualism?
 (7) Hermann Hesse was a Pisces.  Discuss.
 
 |  |  |  | #4979 |  | "OK, now let's look at four dimensions on the blackboard." -- Dr. Joy
 
 |  |  |  | #4980 |  | OK, so you're a Ph.D.  Just don't touch anything. 
 |  |  |  | #4981 |  | One cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs -- but it is amazing how many eggs one can break without making a decent omelette.
 -- Professor Charles P. Issawi
 
 |  |  |  | #4982 |  | Periphrasis is the putting of things in a round-about way.  "The cost may be upwards of a figure rather below 10m#." is a periphrasis for The cost may be
 nearly 10m#.  "In Paris there reigns a complete absence of really reliable
 news" is a periphrasis for There is no reliable news in Paris.  "Rarely does
 the 'Little Summer' linger until November, but at times its stay has been
 prolonged until quite late in the year's penultimate month" contains a
 periphrasis for November, and another for lingers.  "The answer is in the
 negative" is a periphrasis for No.  "Was made the recipient of" is a
 periphrasis for Was presented with.  The periphrasis style is hardly possible
 on any considerable scale without much use of abstract nouns such as "basis,
 case, character, connexion, dearth, description, duration, framework, lack,
 nature, reference, regard, respect".  The existence of abstract nouns is a
 proof that abstract thought has occurred; abstract thought is a mark of
 civilized man; and so it has come about that periphrasis and civilization are
 by many held to be inseparable.  These good people feel that there is an almost
 indecent nakedness, a reversion to barbarism, in saying No news is good news
 instead of "The absence of intelligence is an indication of satisfactory
 developments."
 -- Fowler's English Usage
 
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