Because I feel like it

I've got builds running on two architectures, all of my jobs on the supercomputer have been queued for 10 hours, my beowulf cluster appears to be eating itself, and I made the mistake of reading some old emails from somebody I adore (but who doesn't adore me quite the same way). All of which means that I'm having a dumb day, and want to do something else.

So, I'm going to play in the quote meme -- go here and pick five of 'em that reflect what I believe or who I think I am. You guys can play, too, if you're similarly afflicted today. Here are mine (I tried to pick only five, really!):

What I believe

• Today's public figures can no longer write their own speeches or books, and there is some evidence that they can't read them either. Gore Vidal (1925 - )
• When you helped somebody, right away you were responsible for that person. And things always followed for which you were never prepared. Martha Brooks, True Confessions of a Heartless Girl
  (I wish I didn't believe this, but somehow, I seem to fall into it all the damn time)

Who I "am"

• To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting. e e cummings (1894 - 1962)
  (Judging by recent representations of strong women in the media, this is more than ever a problem)
• Real freedom lies in wildness, not in civilization. Charles Lindbergh (1902 - 1974)
  (I prefer to interpret this metphorically, although I often believe in it literally.)
• The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)
  

And the crowning glory, the one that I need to remember and take to heart:

• Beware of dissipating your powers; strive constantly to concentrate them.
  Genius thinks it can do whatever it sees others doing, but is sure to repent
  of every ill-judged outlay.
  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)