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Post by Tamrin on Dec 6, 2010 12:36:45 GMT 10
Book love... is your pass to the greatest, the purest, and the most perfect pleasure that God has prepared for His creatures
Nobody holds a good opinion of a man who holds a low opinion of himself
No man thinks there is much ado about nothing when the ado is about himself
It may almost be a question whether such wisdom as many of us have in our mature years has not come from the dying out of the power of temptation, rather than as the results of thought and resolution
The man who worships mere wealth is a snob
A man's mind will very gradually refuse to make itself up until it is driven and compelled by emergency
They are best dressed, whose dress no one observesAnthony Trollope, English writer (Died this day 1882) Life is so unlike theory
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 6, 2010 12:40:45 GMT 10
The study of women's intelligence and personality has had broadly the same history as the one we record for Negroes ... in drawing a parallel between the position of, and feeling toward women and Negroes, we are uncovering a fundamental bias of our culture (GM) The big majority of Americans, who are comparatively well off, have developed an ability to have enclaves of people living in the greatest misery without almost noticing them (GM) In a time of deepening crisis in the underdeveloped world, of social malaise in the affluent societies ... it seems likely that Gandhi's ideas and techniques will become increasingly relevant (GM) There is no doubt that the overwhelming majority of white Americans desire that there be as few Negroes as possible in America. If the Negroes could be eliminated from America or greatly decreased in numbers, this would meet the whites' approval —provided that it could be accomplished by means which are also approved. Correspondingly, an increase of the proportion of Negroes in the American population is commonly looked upon as undesirable (GM) White prejudice and discrimination keep the Negro low in standards of living, health, education, manners and morals. This, in its turn, gives support to white prejudice. White prejudice and Negro standards thus mutually ‘cause’ each other (GM) Where do these arms come from, these Saturday night specials that constitute the instrument of threats in bank robberies, or the hand grenades used by terrorists? How can their sales and their import be permitted? (AM) The inventions and the great discoveries have opened up whole continents to reciprocal communication and interchange, provided we are willing (AM) Gunnar Myrdal, Swedish sociologist & economist (Born this day 1898) & Alva Myrdal (married couple) My personal philosophy of life is one of ethics (AM)
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 6, 2010 12:43:17 GMT 10
All the idols made by man, however terrifying they may be, are in point of fact subordinate to him, and that is why he will always have it in his power to destroy them
Defending the truth is not something one does out of a sense of duty or to allay guilt complexes, but is a reward in itself
I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth - and truth rewarded me
No one is more arrogant toward women, more aggressive or scornful, than the man who is anxious about his virility
Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female - whenever she behaves as a human being she is said to imitate the male
When an individual is kept in a situation of inferiority, the fact is that he does become inferior
One is not born a woman, but becomes oneSimone de Beauvoir(Received Prix Goncourt this day 1954) I am incapable of conceiving infinity, and yet I do not accept finity
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 6, 2010 12:45:21 GMT 10
Does anybody really think that they didn't get what they had because they didn't have the talent or the strength or the endurance or the commitment?
We are really appalled by any country, whether a superpower or a small country, that goes outside the U.N. and attacks independent countries, No country should be allowed to take the law into their own hands
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world
For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others
I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear
I detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man
No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its oppositeNelson Mandela(Arrested this day 1956) Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 7, 2010 5:34:39 GMT 10
Quotes for the Day:O, the times, O, the customs!
Justice is the set and constant purpose which gives every man his due
According to the law of nature it is only fair that no one should become richer through damages and injuries suffered by another
The welfare of the people is the ultimate law
Our character is not so much the product of race and heredity as of those circumstances by which nature forms our habits, by which we are nurtured and live
The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil
We are not born for ourselves aloneMarcus Tullius Cicero, Roman philosopher and statesman (Murdered this day 43 BCE) One who sees the Supersoul accompanying the individual soul in all bodies and who understands that neither the soul nor the Supersoul is ever destroyed, actually sees
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 7, 2010 5:39:04 GMT 10
Systematic philosophical and practical anti-intellectualism such as we are witnessing appears to be something truly novel in the history of human culture
A superstition which pretends to be scientific creates a much greater confusion of thought than one which contents itself with simple popular practices
These are strange times. Reason, which once combated faith and seemed to have conquered it, now has to look to faith to save it from dissolution
The repudiation of the primacy of understanding means the repudiation of the norms of judgment as well, and hence the abandonment of all ethical standards
History is the interpretation of the significance that the past has for us
History can predict nothing except that great changes in human relationships will never come about in the form in which they have been anticipated
History creates comprehensibility primarily by arranging facts meaningfully and only in a very limited sense by establishing strict causal connectionsJohan Huizinga, Dutch cultural historian (Born this day 1872) If we are to preserve culture we must continue to create it
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 7, 2010 5:41:30 GMT 10
That is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great
Desire is creation, is the magical element in that process. If there were an instrument by which to measure desire, one could foretell achievement
Give the people a new word and they think they have a new fact
There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before
Sometimes a neighbor whom we have disliked a lifetime for his arrogance and conceit lets fall a single commonplace remark that shows us another side, another man, really; a man uncertain, and puzzled, and in the dark like ourselves
The miracles of the church seem to me to rest not so much upon faces or voices or healing power coming suddenly near to us from afar off, but upon our perceptions being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and our ears can hear what is there about us always
The dead might as well try to speak to the living as the old to the youngWilla Cather, American author (Born this day 1873) The fact that I was a girl never damaged my ambitions to be a pope or an emperor
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 7, 2010 5:46:03 GMT 10
On a grassroots level we say that man can touch more than he can grasp
Contemporary thinkers would say that man is continuously transcending himself
Contemplation and wisdom are highest achievements and man is not totally at home with them
If we are suffering feelings of inferiority with reference to the tools of our philosophizing, perhaps it is because we have not underlined clearly enough that its ultimate concern is beyond the shape of this world, that its activity is contemplation and that its contribution is wisdom!
But a science is exact to the extent that its method measures up to and is adequate to its object
It is right that we be concerned with the scientific probity of metaphysics
The dynamic element in my philosophy, taken as a whole, can be seen as an obstinate and untiring battle against the spirit of abstractionHonoré-Gabriel Marcel, French philosopher/playwright (Born this day 1889) The wise man knows how to run his life so that contemplation is possible
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 7, 2010 5:49:09 GMT 10
If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion
Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it's from Neptune
The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people
Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it
If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all
States are not moral agents, people are, and can impose moral standards on powerful institutions
The Bible is one of the most genocidal books in historyNoam ChomskyUS linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist (founded transformational grammar) (Born this day 1928) 'Tough love' is just the right phrase: love for the rich and privileged, tough for everyone else
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 7, 2010 5:52:05 GMT 10
Man is not an end but a beginning. We are at the beginning of the second week. We are children of the eighth day
Nature reserves the right to inflict upon her children the most terrifying jests
For what human ill does not dawn seem to be an alleviation?
My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate
Those who are silent, self-effacing and attentive become the recipients of confidences
Ninety-nine per cent of the people in the world are fools and the rest of us are in great danger of contagion
Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every dayThornton Wilder, US playwright & novelist (Died this day 1975) Pride, avarice, and envy are in every home
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