|
Post by Tamrin on Dec 1, 2010 16:25:14 GMT 10
1 of 2:Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them
A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled
Education is indoctrination if you're white - subjugation if you're black
The paradox of education is precisely this - that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated
Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor
It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have
I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we allJames Baldwin, US author (Died this day 1987) Be careful what you set your heart upon - for it will surely be yours
|
|
|
Post by Tamrin on Dec 1, 2010 16:27:53 GMT 10
2 of 2:It is very nearly impossible... to become an educated person in a country so distrustful of the independent mind
People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to them, poisoned
Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time
Most of us are about as eager to be changed as we were to be born, and go through our changes in a similar state of shock
No people come into possession of a culture without having paid a heavy price for it
You know, it's not the world that was my oppressor, because what the world does to you, if the world does it to you long enough and effectively enough, you begin to do to yourself
The world is before you and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came inJames Baldwin, US author (Died this day 1987) People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them
|
|
|
Post by Tamrin on Dec 2, 2010 6:19:45 GMT 10
Quotes for the Day:Lust's passion will be served; it demands, it militates, it tyrannizes
All, all is theft, all is unceasing and rigorous competition in nature; the desire to make off with the substance of others is the foremost — the most legitimate — passion nature has bred into us and, without doubt, the most agreeable one
Are not laws dangerous which inhibit the passions? Compare the centuries of anarchy with those of the strongest legalism in any country you like and you will see that it is only when the laws are silent that the greatest actions appear
Are wars anything but the means whereby a nation is nourished, whereby it is strengthened, whereby it is buttressed?
Lust is to the other passions what the nervous fluid is to life; it supports them all, lends strength to them all ambition, cruelty, avarice, revenge, are all founded on lust
My manner of thinking, so you say, cannot be approved. Do you suppose I care? A poor fool indeed is he who adopts a manner of thinking for others!
Social order at the expense of liberty is hardly a bargainMarquis de Sade, eponymous sadist, writer (Died this day 1814) In order to know virtue, we must first acquaint ourselves with vice
|
|
|
Post by Tamrin on Dec 2, 2010 6:23:44 GMT 10
The love of truth lies at the root of much humor
The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealised past
Their very conservatism is secondhand, and they don't know what they are conserving
Fanaticism is overcompensation for doubt
Every man is wise when attacked by a mad dog; fewer when pursued by a mad woman; only the wisest survive when attacked by a mad notion
Few people can see genius in someone who has offended them
Nothing is so easy to fake as the inner visionRobertson Davies, Canadian writer (Died this day 1995) What we call luck is the inner man externalized. We make things happen to us
|
|
|
Post by Tamrin on Dec 3, 2010 5:29:09 GMT 10
Quotes for the Day:The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness
A man that is born falls into a dream like a man who falls into the sea. If he tries to climb out into the air as inexperienced people endeavor to do, he drowns
The scrupulous and the just, the noble, humane, and devoted natures; the unselfish and the intelligent may begin a movement - but it passes away from them. They are not the leaders of a revolution. They are its victims
All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind
They talk of a man betraying his country, his friends, his sweetheart. There must be a moral bond first. All a man can betray is his conscience
To have his path made clear for him is the aspiration of every human being in our beclouded and tempestuous existence
Facing it, always facing it, that's the way to get through. Face itJoseph ConradPolish novelist (Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness) (Born this day 1857) A man's most open actions have a secret side to them
|
|
|
Post by Tamrin on Dec 3, 2010 5:32:24 GMT 10
1 of 2:All speech, written or spoken, is a dead language, until it finds a willing and prepared hearer
Every man has a sane spot somewhere
If your morals make you dreary, depend on it, they are wrong
An aim in life is the only fortune worth finding
It is the mark of a good action that it appears inevitable in retrospect
All human beings are commingled out of good and evil
Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequencesRobert Louis StevensonScottish / Samoan writer (Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde) (Died this day 1894) Give us grace and strength to forbear and to persevere. Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind, spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies
|
|
|
Post by Tamrin on Dec 3, 2010 5:35:32 GMT 10
2 of 2:That man is a success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much
I never weary of great churches. It is my favorite kind of mountain scenery. Mankind was never so happily inspired as when it made a cathedral
If a man loves the labour of his trade, apart from any question of success or fame, the gods have called him
Most of our pocket wisdom is conceived for the use of mediocre people, to discourage them from ambitious attempts, and generally console them in their mediocrity
Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits
Man is a creature who lives not upon bread alone, but primarily by catchwords
I regard you with an indifference closely bordering on aversionRobert Louis StevensonScottish / Samoan writer (Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde) (Died this day 1894) Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well
|
|
|
Post by Tamrin on Dec 3, 2010 5:38:22 GMT 10
How can one know anything at all about people?
If some longing goes unmet, don't be astonished. We call that Life
We live trapped, between the churned-up and examined past and a future that waits for our work
It is only when parental feelings are ineffective or too ambivalent or when the mother's emotions are temporarily engaged elsewhere that children feel lost
We are imprisoned in the realm of life, like a sailor on his tiny boat, on an infinite ocean
I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence but it comes from within. It is there all the time
I am no longer afraid to say anythingAnna FreudAustrian/English psychoanalyst/daughter of Sigmund Freud (Born this day 1895) (with her father) Who promised you that only for joy were you brought to this earth?
|
|
|
Post by Tamrin on Dec 4, 2010 9:39:48 GMT 10
Quotes for the Day:In the state of nature profit is the measure of right
The obligation of subjects to the sovereign is understood to last as long, and no longer, than the power lasteth by which he is able to protect them
That a man be willing, when others are so too, as far forth as for peace and defense of himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down this right to all things; and be contented with so much liberty against other men, as he would allow other men against himself
Such is the nature of men, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or more learned; yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves
Science is the knowledge of consequences, and dependence of one fact upon another
They that approve a private opinion, call it opinion; but they that dislike it, heresy; and yet heresy signifies no more than private opinion
Words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon by them: but they are the money of fools, that value them by the authority of an Aristotle, a Cicero, or a Thomas, or any other doctor whatsoever, if but a manThomas Hobbesearly Enlightenment philosopher (Leviathan, “Social Contract”) (Died this day 1679) A wise man should so write (though in words understood by all men) that wise men only should be able to commend him
|
|
|
Post by Tamrin on Dec 4, 2010 9:43:03 GMT 10
Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand
Go as far as you can see; when you get there you'll be able to see farther
What you see, but can't see over is as good as infinite
I don't pretend to understand the Universe - it's a great deal bigger than I am
Imagination is a poor matter when it has to part company with understanding
I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance
History, a distillation of rumourThomas CarlyleScottish essayist/historian (French Revolution) (Born this day 1795) Work alone is noble
|
|