Life is a near-death experience.
George CarlinRead
If the black box flight recorder is never damaged during a plane crash, why isn’t the whole airplane made out of that stuff?
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote questions the paradox of safety in design, highlighting how solutions are often disregarded regardless of their effectiveness.
George Carlin's quote provocatively questions the logic behind aircraft design by pointing out that if the black box, which survives crashes, is made from durable materials, it raises the question of why these materials are not used for the entire airplane. This statement invites us to think critically about common practices and the inherent contradictions in our approaches to safety and technology, pushing us to examine deeper truths about choices made in engineering and design.
Themes
SafetyDesignLogicAirplanePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about engineering standards, this quote can illustrate the irony of current practices.
More from George Carlin
All quotes →Here’s a bumper sticker I’d like to see: “We are the proud parents of a child who’s self-esteem is sufficient that he doesn’t need us promoting his minor scholastic achievements on the back of our car."
George CarlinRead
If you've got a cat and a leg, you've got a happy cat. If you've got a cat and two legs, you've got a party.
George CarlinRead
This is a lttle prayer dedicated to the separation of church and state. I guess if they are going to force those kids to pray in schools they might as well have a nice prayer like this: Our Father who art in heaven, and to the republic for which it stands, thy kingdom come, one nation indivisible as in heaven, give us this day as we forgive those who so proudly we hail. Crown thy good into temptation but deliver us from the twilight's last gleaming. Amen and Awomen.
George CarlinRead
Some people try to get out of jury duty by lying. You don't have to lie. Tell the judge the truth. Tell him you'd make a terrific juror because you can spot guilty people.
George CarlinRead
Intelligence tests are biased toward the literate.
George CarlinRead
Similar quotes
The secret of life is to have no fear; it's the only way to function.
Stokely CarmichaelRead
It was a beautiful, harmonious, peaceful-looking planet, blue with white clouds, and one that gave you a deep sense of home, of being, of identity. It is what I prefer to call instant global consciousness.
Edgar MitchellRead
When you love a city and have explored it frequently on foot, your body, not to mention your soul, gets to know the streets so well after a number of years that in a fit of melancholy, perhaps stirred by a light snow falling ever so sorrowfully, you'll discover your legs carrying you of their own accord toward one of your favourite promontories
Orhan PamukRead
They are all beasts of burden in a sense, ' Thoreau once remarked of animals, 'made to carry some portion of our thoughts.' Animals are the old language of the imagination; one of the ten thousand tragedies of their disappearance would be a silencing of this speech.
Rebecca SolnitRead
Meaning equals emotion and emotion equals life. Choose consciously and wisely.
Tony RobbinsRead
I am convinced that whenever we exaggerate or demonize, oversimplify or overstate our case, we lose. Whenever we dumb down the political debate, we lose. For it's precisely the pursuit of ideological purity, the rigid orthodoxy and the sheer predictability of our current political debate, that keeps us from finding new ways to meet the challenges we face.
Barack ObamaRead