From: Fred T. Hamster <fred@feistymeow.org>
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2026 22:15:46 +0000 (-0400)
Subject: new fortunes
X-Git-Url: https://feistymeow.org/gitweb/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=12dfcd1a987d92af225c6aa64d61b474a238d515;p=feisty_meow.git

new fortunes

and some revised ones, for erroneously attributed or just wrong ben franklin and confucius quotes.
---

diff --git a/infobase/fortunes.dat b/infobase/fortunes.dat
index 9cbdd243..f4710ab2 100644
--- a/infobase/fortunes.dat
+++ b/infobase/fortunes.dat
@@ -786,8 +786,13 @@ War is much too serious a matter to be entrusted to the military.
 ~
 When you have nothing to say, say nothing.  -- Charles Caleb Colton
 ~
-I hear and I forget.  I see and I remember.  I do and I understand.
-  -- Confucius
+Not having heard of it is not as good as having heard of it.
+Having heard of it is not as good as having seen it.
+Having seen it is not as good as knowing it.
+Knowing it is not as good as putting it into practice.
+Learning arrives at putting it into practice and then stops....
+  -- from "Xunzi: The Complete Text" translated by Eric L. Hutton, published
+     by Princeton University Press in 2014
 ~
 If we don't know life, how can we know death? -- Confucius
 ~
@@ -7454,7 +7459,9 @@ Work is the curse of the drinking class.
 When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.
   -- Henny Youngman
 ~
-Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
+Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards; there it enters
+the roots of the vines, to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God
+loves us, and loves to see us happy.
   -- Benjamin Franklin
 ~
 If you ever reach total enlightenment while drinking beer, I bet it
@@ -44164,11 +44171,31 @@ To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.
 Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
   -- Benjamin Franklin
 ~
-I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our
-country; he is a bird of bad moral character; like those among men who live by
-sharping and robbing, he is generally poor, and often very lousy.  The turkey
-is a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America.
-  -- Benjamin Franklin
+...Others object to the bald eagle, as looking too much like a Dindon or
+turkey.  For my own part I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the
+representative of our country.  He is a bird of bad moral character.  He does
+not get his living honestly.  You may have seen him perched on some dead tree,
+where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labour of the fishing
+hawk; and when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish, and is bearing
+it to his nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the bald eagle
+pursues him, and takes it from him.  With all this injustice, he is never in
+good case, but like those among men who live by sharping and robbing he is
+generally poor and often very lousy.  Besides he is a rank coward: the little
+king bird not bigger than a sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of
+the district.  He is therefore by no means a proper emblem for the brave and
+honest Cincinnati of America, who have driven all the king birds from our
+country, though exactly fit for that order of knights which the French call
+Chevaliers d’Industrie.  I am on this account not displeased that the figure
+is not known as a bald eagle, but looks more like a turkey.  For in truth, the
+turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true
+original native of America.  Eagles have been found in all countries, but the
+turkey was peculiar to ours, the first of the species seen in Europe being
+brought to France by the Jesuits from Canada, and served up at the wedding
+table of Charles the ninth.  He is besides, (though a little vain and silly
+tis true, but not the worse emblem for that) a bird of courage, and would not
+hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British guards who should presume to
+invade his farm yard with a red coat on.
+  -- Benjamin Franklin, from a letter to Sarah Bache, 26 January 1784
 ~
 Energy and persistence conquer all things.
   -- Benjamin Franklin
@@ -46027,4 +46054,7 @@ Even perfect program verification can only establish that a program meets its
 specification. [...]  Much of the essence of building a program is in fact the
 debugging of the specification.
   -- Fred Brooks, manager of the IBM System/360
+~
+Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain--and most fools do.
+  -- Dale Carnegie, in "How to Win Friends and Influence People", 1936