I saw a movie last night from 1995 called Assassins.  It stars Sylvester Stallone, Julianne Moore and Antonio Banderas.  It isn’t the greatest movie (although it is far from the worst).  But it does have a great little story that Julianne Moore tells near the end.  I’m sure I’ve heard it before.  It goes something like this…

A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold that the bird froze and fell to the ground in a large field. While it was lying there, a cow came by and dropped a load of hot, steaming dung on it.

As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of dung, it began to realize how warm it was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy and soon began to sing for joy.

A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung. The cat promptly dug the bird out, killed him and ate him.

Lesson:

• Not everyone who drops shit on you is your enemy.
• Not everyone who pulls you out of shit is your friend.
• And when you’re warm and happy in your pile of shit, keep your mouth shut!

The following is one of my favorite passages.  I first read it in the Help file of a software program by John Walker called Home Planet maybe 15 years ago. John includes it at the end of an incredibly well written article about the Fermi paradox.

And finally there is the reasonable certainty that this sun of ours must some day radiate itself toward extinction; that at least must happen, until some day this earth of ours, tideless and slow moving, will be dead and frozen, and all that has lived upon it will be frozen out and done with.  There surely man must end.  That of all such nightmares is the most insistently convincing. And yet one doesn’t believe it.  At least I do not. And I do not believe in these things because I have come to believe in certain other things—in the coherencey and purpose in the world and in the greatness of human destiny.  Worlds may freeze and suns may perish, but there stirs something within us now that can never die again.

We are in the beginning of the greatest change that humanity has ever undergone.  There is no shock, no epoch-making incident, but then there is no shock at a cloudy daybreak.  At no point can we say, here it commences, now, last minute was night and this is morning.  But insensibly we are in the day.  What we can see and imagine gives us a measure and gives us faith for what surpasses the imagination.
— H. G. Wells, “The Discovery of the Future,” Nature, 65: 326-331 (1902).

Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently.

They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.

Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.

And while some may see them as the crazy ones,
we see genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world,

are the ones who do.

- Apple Ad Copy

I first read this quote as being attributed to Jack Kerouac, from On the Road. And actually all over the Internet he’s attributed to writing it. While he did say something vaguely similar in his book, the quote is actually ad copy from Apple’s Think Different ad campaign.

The full, lengthy version of the quote goes as follows:

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people.

While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Personally, I’m a little more fond of the shorter version – it’s a more concise and to the point.

Of course, there’s also the television commercial version too that combines the great quote with video imagery, featuring the likes of a bunch of famous people from the 20th century.