“Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.”

“Dotty: Archie says the Church is a monument to irrationality.
George: … The National Gallery is a monument to irrationality! Every concert hall is a monument to irrationality! — and so is a nicely kept garden, or a lover's favour, or a home for stray dogs! You stupid woman, if rationality were the criterion for things being allowed to exist, the world would be one gigantic field of soya beans!”

Tom Stoppard Jumpers

“The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power.”

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author

“It’s absolutely stupid that we live without an ozone layer. We have men, we’ve got rockets, we’ve got saran wrap – FIX IT!!!”

Lewis Black (1948) American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, social critic and actor

“The earlier the position is fixed upon, the better for quartering the army. I wish your Excellency, therefore, as soon as you have decided in your mind the places and force requisite for each side of the North River, and the garrison for these fortifications, would please to acquaint me therewith, as it will be a more perfect guide to my conduct, in making the preparations for cantoning the army.”

Nathanael Greene (1742–1786) American general in the American Revolutionary War

“Those who do monumental work don't need monuments.”

Baba Amte (1914–2008) Indian freedom fighter, social worker

“The absence of a monument can, in its own way, be something of a monument also.”

Roger Zelazny book This Immortal

“No man has the right to fix the boundary to the march of a nation.”

Charles Stewart Parnell (1846–1891) Irish politician

“There’s no drug that’ll make a stupid man smart.”

Robert Charles Wilson book Axis

“I have been clinically depressed for most of my life. I once used drugs to fix it. Then I stopped. I stopped because I decided they were making me stupid, and I’d rather be miserable than stupid. I am what I am.”

Neal Stephenson book Seveneves