Quotes

~ Relevant quotes that make me smile (or cry) ~

"If by a liberal, they mean someone who looks ahead and not bhind; someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions; someone who cares about the welfare of the people, their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, their civil liberties; someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicion that grips us; if that is what they mean by a liberal, I am proud to be a liberal." -- Sen . Edward M. Kennedy, 1932-2009

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Gandhi

"God has grabbed me by the jockstrap and fired me off his thumb, rubber band-style." -- Dan Niel, 2008 in a review of the Tesla Roadster

“No company wants to be first to open the door to a future that portends a radical reshaping of the industry. Better to squeeze every last dollar out of the unchallenged petroleum-swallowing internal combustion engine.” -- Marc Geller, 2007 at plugsandcars.blogspot.com

"Help retool the U.S. automotive fleet on an accelerated basis, replacing gas-guzzling vehicles with new FFVs, hybrids and plug-in hybrids. Do it not just out of self-interest. Do it for your country." -- Frank Gaffney, January 16, 2007 on military.com

"Petroleum refining is the number one consumer of energy in California's manufacturing sector. In 1997, the industry consumed 7,266 million KWh of electricity and 1,061 million Therms of natural gas. This consumption amounted to 15 and 28 percent of the state's total manufacturing sector's electrical and natural gas consumption respectively." -- California Energy Commission (Link)

"There seems to be a general impression that for passenger transportation in and around our cities, the electric automobile is the best. It has the great advantage of being silent, free from odor, simple in construction and gearing, capable of ready control, and having a considerable range of speed." -- Scientific America, August 1899

"Let this be our national goal: At the end of this decade, in the year 1980, the United States will not be dependent on any other country for the energy we need to provide our jobs, to heat our homes, and to keep our transportation moving." President Richard Nixon, Jan 30, 1974.

"If you're one of those people who puts solar panels on your house or drives a battery powered car, you might as well vote for Gore" -- Dick Cheney, Oct 3, 2000.

"Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy." -- Dick Cheney, 2001.

“We need an energy bill that encourages consumption.” -- George W. Bush in Trenton, New Jersey 9.23.2002

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds" -- Samuel Adams

"Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." -- Mark Twain

"I have no doubt that we will be successful in harnessing the sun's energy.... If sunbeams were weapons of war, we would have had solar energy centuries ago." -- Sir George Porter, August 26, 1973.

"The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun." -- Ralph Nader, 1980.

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." -- Gandhi

"We all live downwind." -- bumper sticker

"In the long run, Good Environmentalism = Good Conservation = Good Economics. It just isn't as glamorous as conspicuous consumption." -- Clint Kennedy, 2005 (who for the second year in a row is handing PG&E $1000+ in energy credits generated by his roof-mounted PV array),

"The world we have created today as a result of our thinking thus far has problems which cannot be solved by thinking the way we thought when we created them." -- Albert Einstein

"We've got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need ?"--Lee Iacocca

"The perfect is the enemy of the good" -- Anonymous.

"A beer is finally cheaper than a gallon of gasoline. Drink, don't drive." -- T-shirt that my sister gave me.

"I'd put my money on solar energy... I hope we don't have to wait till oil and coal run out before we tackle that." -- Thomas Edison, March 1931, in a conversation with Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone.

“One of the big differences between my EV and your gasoline car is that I cannot pour imported, carcinogenic, non-renewable, polluting, terrorist-funded, flammable liquid into my car’s tank." -- Darell Dickey, December, 2006

"someone who drives a Hummer doesn’t suffer the effects of pollution and global warming any more than someone driving a Prius does, and isn’t charged more for the extra environmental damage." -- James Surowiecki, July, 2007, The New Yorker

"If you're going to drive a Hummer and buy carbon offsets, that's like getting drunk every night and getting into an AA meeting, throwing money in the basket, and leaving." -- Ed Begley Jr., 2007

"The laws of physics can't be changed by research projects, votes of parliament, presidential initiatives, capital investments... The hydrogen economy has no past, present or future." - Dr. ULF BOSSEL, 2007, European Fuel Cell Forum.

"You know what's stupid? Everything I don't understand." - The Onion, Feb 27, 2008

"Efficiency is the new productivity. Buy less, use less, spend less, and yes, earn less, and have a better life as a result, plus a planet to pass on to your kids." - Unknown, April, 2008

"The United States was capable of only two approaches to its energy policy: 'complacency or crisis.' - James Schlesinger, the nation's first energy secretary.

"Maximize demand, minimize supply and buy the rest from the people who hate us the most." - Peter Schwartz of Global Business Network describing the true American energy policy today.

"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do." - Henry Ford (The proponents of FCV should take this to heart?)

"If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse." - Henry Ford (after building the first mass-produced automobile)

"So-called “global warming” is just a secret ploy by wacko tree-huggers to make America energy independent, clean our air and water, improve the fuel efficiency of our vehicles, kick-start 21st-century industries, and make our cities safer and more livable. Don’t let them get away with it!" -Chip Giller, Founder of Grist.org. (See the same concept illustrated here.

"We're seeing an explosion in improvements in battery technologies.  In contrast, we've only seen explosions in hydrogen". - Arthur Keller, Oct 07, 2011

"Conspicuous consumption is worthy of high effort and top dollar. I'll go so far as to say that it *requires* top dollar. Protecting our environment, on the other hand, needs to come with no sacrifice - not physically and certainly not financially". - Darell Dickey, Oct 18 2011

"It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail." – Abraham Maslow

"A new source of power... called gasoline has been produced by a Boston engineer. Instead of burning the fuel under a boiler, it is exploded inside the cylinder of an engine. The dangers are obvious. Stores of gasoline in the hands of people interested primarily in profit would constitute a fire and explosive hazard of the first rank. Horseless carriages propelled by gasoline might attain speeds of 14 or even 20 miles per hour. The menace to our people of vehicles of this type hurtling through our streets and along our roads and poisoning the atmosphere would call for prompt legislative action even if the military and economic implications were not so overwhelming... [T]he cost of producing [gasoline] is far beyond the financial capacity of private industry... In addition the development of this new power may displace the use of horses, which would wreck our agriculture". - U. S. Congressional Record, 1875.

"The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty—a fad". - Advice from a president of the Michigan Savings Bank to Henry Ford's lawyer Horace Rackham. Rackham ignored the advice and invested $5000 in Ford stock, selling it later for $12.5 million.

"That the automobile has practically reached the limit of its development is suggested by the fact that during the past year no improvements of a radical nature have been introduced". - Scientific American, Jan. 2, 1909.

"The 'horseless carriage' is at present a luxury for the wealthy; and although its price will probably fall in the future, it will never, of course, come into as common use as the bicycle." - Literary Digest, 1899.

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