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  fortune index  all fortunes 
  
 |  |  | #3246 |  | "The urge to destroy is also a creative urge." -- Bakunin
 [ed. note - I would say: The urge to destroy may sometimes be a creative urge.]
 
 |  |  |  | #3247 |  | "A commercial, and in some respects a social, doubt has been started within the last year or two, whether or not it is right to discuss so openly the security
 or insecurity of locks.  Many well-meaning persons suppose that the discus-
 sion respecting the means for baffling the supposed safety of locks offers a
 premium for dishonesty, by showing others how to be dishonest.  This is a fal-
 lacy.  Rogues are very keen in their profession, and already know much more
 than we can teach them respecting their several kinds of roguery.  Rogues knew
 a good deal about lockpicking long before locksmiths discussed it among them-
 selves, as they have lately done.  If a lock -- let it have been made in what-
 ever country, or by whatever maker -- is not so inviolable as it has hitherto
 been deemed to be, surely it is in the interest of *honest* persons to know
 this fact, because the *dishonest* are tolerably certain to be the first to
 apply the knowledge practically; and the spread of knowledge is necessary to
 give fair play to those who might suffer by ignorance.  It cannot be too ear-
 nestly urged, that an acquaintance with real facts will, in the end, be better
 for all parties."
 -- Charles Tomlinson's Rudimentary Treatise on the Construction of Locks,
 published around 1850
 
 |  |  |  | #3248 |  | In respect to lock-making, there can scarcely be such a thing as dishonesty of intention: the inventor produces a lock which he honestly thinks will
 possess such and such qualities; and he declares his belief to the world.
 If others differ from him in opinion concerning those qualities, it is open
 to them to say so; and the discussion, truthfully conducted, must lead to
 public advantage: the discussion stimulates curiosity, and curiosity stimu-
 lates invention.  Nothing but a partial and limited view of the question
 could lead to the opinion that harm can result: if there be harm, it will be
 much more than counterbalanced by good."
 -- Charles Tomlinson's Rudimentary Treatise on the Construction of Locks,
 published around 1850.
 
 |  |  |  | #3249 |  | "Wish not to seem, but to be, the best." -- Aeschylus
 
 |  |  |  | #3250 |  | "Survey says..." -- Richard Dawson, weenie, on "Family Feud"
 
 |  |  |  | #3251 |  | "Paul Lynde to block..." -- a contestant on "Hollywood Squares"
 
 |  |  |  | #3252 |  | "Little else matters than to write good code." -- Karl Lehenbauer
 
 |  |  |  | #3253 |  | To write good code is a worthy challenge, and a source of civilized delight. -- stolen and paraphrased from William Safire
 
 |  |  |  | #3254 |  | "Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -- William E. Davidsen
 
 |  |  |  | #3255 |  | "If a computer can't directly address all the RAM you can use, it's just a toy." -- anonymous comp.sys.amiga posting, non-sequitir
 
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