Related:

• erd n. 1. [mainstream slang] Pejorative applied to anyone with an above-average IQ and few gifts at small talk and ordinary social rituals.
  2. [jargon] Term of praise applied (in conscious ironic reference to sense 1) to someone who knows what's really important and interesting and doesn't care to be distracted by trivial chatter and silly status games....
• Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike
  hey die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills....
• Support bacteria -- it's the only culture some people have!
• Let's talk sense to the American people. Let's tell them the truth, that there are no gains without pains.
  -- Adlai Stevenso...
• But our culture is in truly bad shape if we have come to define respecting something as the failure to set it on fire.
  -- Barbara Ehrenreich (regarding flag burning)...
• The big majority of Americans, who are comparatively well off, have developed an ability to have enclaves of people living in the greatest misery without almost noticing them.
  -- Gunnar Myrdal...