Spicing Meme Quotes

Humans are a story telling species. Throughout history we have told stories to each other and ourselves as one of the ways to understand the world around us. Every culture has its creation myth for how the universe came to be, but the stories do not stop at the big picture view; other stories discuss every aspect of the world around us. We humans are chatterboxes and we just can't resist telling a story about just about everything.

However compelling and entertaining these stories may be, they fall short of being explanations because in the end all they are is stories. For every story you can tell a different variation, or a different ending, without giving reason to choose between them. If you are skeptical or try to test the veracity of these stories you'll typically find most such stories wanting. One approach to this is forbid skeptical inquiry, branding it as heresy. This meme is so compelling that it was independently developed by cultures around the globes; it is the origin of religion - a set of stories about the world that must be accepted on faith, and never questioned. ~ Nathan Myhrvold

Not even the most heavily-armed police state can exert brute force to all of its citizens all of the time. Meme management is so much subtler; the rose-tinted refraction of perceived reality, the contagious fear of threatening alternatives. ~ Peter Watts

First and foremost, the most profound weapon a nation or special interest can possess is "control" over information. This contributes to control over the narrative and the meme is the embryo of the narrative. ~ James Scott, Senior Fellow, The Center For Cyber Influence Operations Studies

By the time he graduates, projected to be by his thirtieth birthday, Wheeler's transcript will be a meme used to scare children into studying harder. ~ Kurt Dinan

Very interestingly in a movement that I call now the hijab lobby, sadly promulgated by women that some of us refer to as Muslim mean girls and their friends, are trying to put out this meme that we are denying women their choice. ~ Asra Nomani

Ideology is a sick-soul-meme; it gnaws basic decency away until you can self-justify the most extreme acts as worthwhile to further the cause. Any cause. ~ Peter F. Hamilton

Apparently, there was even a meme created already. The incredibly photogenic glowing-alien meme. ~ Jennifer L. Armentrout

Meme A term introduced by the biologist Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. Dawkins defined memes as small cultural units of transmission, analogous to genes, which are spread from person to person by copying or imitation. Examples of memes in his pioneering essay include cultural artifacts such as melodies, catchphrases, and clothing fashions, as well as abstract beliefs. Like genes, memes are defined as replicators that undergo variation, competition, selection, and retention. At any given moment, many memes are competing for the attention of hosts; however, only memes suited to their sociocultural environment spread successfully, while others become extinct. ~ Limor Shifman

For some reason, Greg Ginn from Black Flag is recording an Access: Hollywood episode in my bathroom, doing an interview with one of those interchangeable video host babes. He's talking about how an important part of making it as a punk rock musician is to buy a good condo at a low interest rate, and then list it on Airbnb when you're on tour. While he talks, he eats a loaf of garlic bread that has currywurst on it, which is a trending meme that week. ~ Jon Konrath

You are what you do not what you want to do. My life is based on my actions, not my thoughts or plans. In the past, I would tell myself that I wanted to write and, truthfully, I never made time for it. Now, I do write, every day, and I can proudly say that I have made time to do what I want. If you truly want to be doing something, you will find the time to do so.
Think about it: What do you really want to be doing? Why aren't you doing that thing?
I used to never make time to write because I thought I would enjoy browsing Reddit and watching Netflix more than I would enjoy writing. Those activities that give instant gratification won't make you happier in the long run. Every time I see a piece of my writing I feel so satisfied and proud of myself, every single time. If I see the same meme multiple times, I don't feel anything. I don't feel guilty or like this is the wrong thing for me to be doing when I write. I am no longer a watcher, I am a creator. I am a writer. ~ Avina Celeste

I do think the Roman Catholic religion is a disease of the mind which has a particular epidemiology similar to that of a virus ... Religion is a terrific meme. That's right. But that doesn't make it true and I care about what's true. Smallpox virus is a terrific virus. It does its job magnificently well. That doesn't mean that it's a good thing. It doesn't mean that I don't want to see it stamped out. ~ Richard Dawkins

Professor Dawkins himself stated that "Religion is about turning untested belief, into unshakable truth through the power of institutions, and the passage of time." This is exactly what is happening with his meme conjecture. He is taking an untestable idea, by scientific standards, and through media and literature and a popular cult following, creating it into a social norm of truth where others believe his idea and propagate it as an unshakeable truth. This also is occurring faster because of computer technology in time. But nonetheless, it is an occurrence within a passage of time. ~ Idav Kelly

No, the founders of our culture didn't just fall into a lifestyle of total dependence on agriculture, they had to whip themselves into it, and the whip they used was this meme: Growing all your own food is the best way to live. Nothing less could imaginably have done this amazing trick. ~ Daniel Quinn

There's people who actually have a whole science devoted to what makes a sticky meme and that idea of that question of why some ideas about how civilizations work catch on and others don't. ~ Jay Roach

Will 2015 ever be noted as the year Ebola was decisively downgraded from a lurid horror meme to just one of many commonly treatable diseases? ~ T.K. Naliaka

She acts all scary, but she's been unusually nice to us, so... I know! She's the Tsundere-type zombie, amiright?! ~ Sakazaki Freddie

Certainly almost everything we do and think is colored in some way by memes, but it is important to realize that not everything we experience is a meme. If I walk down the street and see a tree, the basic perception that's going on is not memetic. ~ Susan Blackmore

Back in August, I wrote a post about the supposed race to the bottom with ebooks, refuting some nonsense written by an establishment bonehead.
This meme won't die. People are still convinced that new ebooks are going to be priced at ten cents, and writers will starve, and this will cause a second Great Depression where banks will close and people will be forced to buy Kindles with food stamps, and then the earth will enter another ice age where all the bunnies will freeze to death. ~ J.A. Konrath

They're trying to breed a nation of techno-peasants. Educated just enough to keep things going, but not enough to ask tough questions. They encourage any meme that downplays thoughtful analysis or encourages docility or self indulgence or uniformity. In what other society do people use "smart" and "wise" as insults? We tell people "don't get smart." Those who try, those who really like to learn, we call "nerds." Look at television or the press or the trivia that passes for political debate. When a candidate DOES try to talk about the issues, the newspapers talk about his sex life. Look at Saturday morning cartoon shows. Peasants, whether they're tilling fields or stuffing circuit boards, are easier to manipulate. Don't question; just believe. Turn off your computer and Trust the Force.

Or turn your computer on and treat it like the Oracle of Delphi.

That's right. They've made education superficial and specialized. Science classes for art majors? Forget it! And how many business or engineering students get a really good grounding in the humanities? When did universities become little more than white collar vocational schools? ~ Michael Flynn

The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry. ~ Richard Dawkins

When you get into statistical analysis, you don't really expect to achieve fame. Or to become an Internet meme. Or be parodied by 'The Onion' - or be the subject of a cartoon in 'The New Yorker.' I guess I'm kind of an outlier there. ~ Nate Silver

As for memes, the word 'meme' is a cliche, which is to say it's already a meme. We all hear it all the time, and maybe we even have started to use it in ordinary speech. The man who invented it was Richard Dawkins, who was, not coincidentally, an evolutionary biologist. And he invented it as an analog for the gene. ~ James Gleick

It [culture] invites people to diminish themselves, and dehumanize themselves by behaving like machines, meme processors of memes passed down from Madison Avenue, and Hollywood, and what have you. ~ Terence McKenna

When you plant a fertile meme in my mind you literally parasitize my brain, turning it into a vehicle for the meme's propagation in just the way that a virus may parasitize the genetic mechanism of a host cell. ~ Richard Dawkins

curricular: they occur outside his playing remit. This is Lingard of the social media meme, the dab-dance ~ Andrew Kirby

Yes, we have quite literally followed you to the end of the earth," Monty replied, "And there was only mild complaining ~ Mackenzi Lee

We are not to mimic witches spicing their caldrons with a little eye of newt and tail of squirrel when we add Jesus' name to our prayers. ~ Bryan Chapell

It's an internet meme," I said, matter-of-factly. "I'd tell you to Google it, but you've only got about five minutes to live and you're going to spend every one of those fighting for your life. ~ Robert J. Crane

I tried to start a gang once.
It turned into a book club.
- MEME ~ Darynda Jones

A meme a day keeps the planes away. ~ Meme McDonald

So, the first things we must do is decide which it is: A
substantive and hidden thing that produces cultural symptoms or it is the meme "hypothesis" and testable. If it is not falsifiable it cannot meet the criteria of scientific fact, according to the very structure of the scientific methodology itself. This would put it in the latter category of faith-based belief systems ~ L.B. Ó Ceallaigh