Are you trying to tell all of us we have a bad signal-to-noise ratio?

Never trust machinery more complicated than a knife and fork.

Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untravelled, the naive, the sophisticated deplore these formalities as 'empty,' 'meaningless,' or 'dishonest,' and scorn to use them. No matter how 'pure' their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best.

Abstract knowledge is always useful, sooner or later.

There are two ways of forming an opinion. One is the scientific method; the other, the scholastic. To the scientific mind, experimental proof is all-important, and theory is merely a convenience in description, to be junked when it no longer fits. To the academic mind, authority is everything, and facts are junked when they do not fit theory.

Never tease an old dog; he might have one bite left.

To assess the intelligence of a committee, divide the IQ of its stupidest member by the number of members.