ASSERTIONS (MOSTLY AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL) ******************************************** No one can be as stupid as a self-ASSessed smart man in love. * To excel in one thing also means to fail in a thousand others. * Gandhi is right: there are not atheists; only people with different belief systems one of which is based on the non-existence of God. * In the kind of world we live in, corruption and incompetence are not seen as crimes against humanity. If they were, who would escape hanging? * Our leaders have committed so many blunders that their capacity for them must be ascribed to a gift rather than bad judgment. * No need to be afraid of what I say. I could be wrong; and if I am I will be the first to rejoice. * I have behaved like a pig and I have behaved like a human being: I can tell the difference. # IF KARL MARX… ******************************* If Karl Marx had lived in the USSR under Stalin and said he disagreed with Kremlin’s version of Communism he would have been arrested by the KGB and spent the rest of his life in the Gulag. * When fanatics fight it is the moderates who die. * When it comes to self-interest there are no sheep, only wolves. * We gain nothing when we replace the Turkish master with an Armenian master. * I write as I do because I am no longer dependent on the charity of swine. # A LINE FROM MOLIERE *************************************** “Are we among Turks who lock up their women?” * To be too careful may also be a mistake. * Marriage is the best cure for love as suicide is the best antidote for fear of death. * If reason is on our side reality may be against us. That may well be the most important lesson history can teach us. * What doesn’t kill us may make us so sick that we wish we were dead. * We live in a world where good men are persecuted by bad men and where the ignorant behave as if they had a license to kill those who may know better. #