The Philosophy of George Carlin

"Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck." ~ George Carlin

The greatest comedians are not unlike the greatest philosophers of our time.  They inspire us to think about our thinking and often present their thoughts in the form of questions, for those of who will listen, to answer for ourselves...

To celebrate the comedy and philosophical thoughts of the late George Carlin, who passed away yesterdayat the age of 71, I thought I would highlight what I believe to be some his most philosophical observations and questions of life. 

Before I continue with more of Carlin's comedy, I wanted to share one of my favorite quotes of his that I have used many times to make light of traders, statisticians and quantitative investors who often, and to their detriment, confuse the causation of an event (i.e. the rise or fall of stock prices) with a dubious correlation (i.e. various historical references) to the given event and make decisions for the future based upon that dubious correlation.  With that in mind, think about this quote, which I believe to be one of the greatest observations of causation and correlation:

"Death is caused by swallowing small amounts of saliva over a long period of time." ~ George Carlin

I'm sure you'll enjoy more thoughts from George Carlin.  I'll be back tomorrow with my usual weekly post...

There's no present.  There's only the immediate future and the recent past.

Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider thanthat.

When someone asks you, A penny for your thoughts and you put your two cents in, what happens to the other penny?

When someone is impatient and says, "I haven't got all day," I always wonder, How can that be?  How can you not have all day?

What if there were no hypothetical questions?

Why is the man (or woman) who invests all your money called a broker?

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.  Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.

Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?

Women like silent men, they think they're listening.

'I am' is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language.  Could it be that "I do" is the longest sentence?

Men are from Earth, women are from Earth.  Deal with it.

If all the world is a stage, where is the audience sitting?

Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second best policy.

I think it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.

Thanks for the thoughts and the laughs, George...

Related Posts:

Steve Martin's Funny Philosophy

The Philosophy of Led Zeppelin