Post by Tamrin on Nov 23, 2012 14:45:14 GMT 10
RIP Bryce Courteney:
The power of one is above all things the power to believe in yourself, often well beyond any latent ability
you may have previously demonstrated. The mind is the athlete, the body is simply the means it uses
to run faster or longer, jump higher, shoot straighter, kick better, swim harder, hit further, or box better
The tragedy of the human condition is that the very things that make us
interesting and culturally important and progressively brilliant are our differences;
and these are also the principle reasons for our prejudices
‘Always in life an idea starts small, it is only a sapling idea, but the vines will come and they will try
to choke your idea so it cannot grow and it will die and you will never know you had a big idea, an
idea so big it could have grown thirty meters through the dark canopy of leaves and touched the
face of the sky.' He looked at me and continued. 'The vines are people who are afraid of originality,
of new thinking. Most people you encounter will be vines; when you are a young plant they are very
dangerous.' His piercing blue eyes looked into mine. 'Always listen to yourself, Peekay. It is better
to be wrong than simply to follow convention. If you are wrong, no matter, you have learned some-
thing and you grow stronger. If you are right, you have taken another step toward a fulfilling life’
Inside all people there is love, also the need to take care of the other man who is his brother.
Inside everyone is a savage, but there is also happening tenderness and compassion
The rapacious white tribe who were arriving in increasing numbers, not only as convicts but also
as settlers, wanted to own everything they touched. They slashed and burned the wilderness so
that they might graze their sheep and grow their corn. They erected fences around the land they
now called their own and which henceforth they were prepared to defend with muskets and some-
times even their lives. They built church steeples and prison walls and homes of granite hewn from
the virgin rock and timber cut from the umbrageous mountain forests. They possessed everything
upon the island, the wild beasts that grazed upon its surface, the birds that flew over it, the fish that
swam in its rushing river torrents and the barking seals resting in the quiet bays and secluded inlets.
Everything they thought worthwhile was attached to the notion of ownership
Intelligence is a harder gift. For this you must work, you must practice it, challenge it, and maybe toward
the end of your life you will master it. Cleverness is the shadow, whereas intelligence is the substance
I wish to cup knowledge in my hand and drink it as one drinks water by the side of the stream
Bryce Courteney
South African born Australian novelist (The Power of one)
(Died 22/11/2012)
First with the head, then with the heart
you may have previously demonstrated. The mind is the athlete, the body is simply the means it uses
to run faster or longer, jump higher, shoot straighter, kick better, swim harder, hit further, or box better
The tragedy of the human condition is that the very things that make us
interesting and culturally important and progressively brilliant are our differences;
and these are also the principle reasons for our prejudices
‘Always in life an idea starts small, it is only a sapling idea, but the vines will come and they will try
to choke your idea so it cannot grow and it will die and you will never know you had a big idea, an
idea so big it could have grown thirty meters through the dark canopy of leaves and touched the
face of the sky.' He looked at me and continued. 'The vines are people who are afraid of originality,
of new thinking. Most people you encounter will be vines; when you are a young plant they are very
dangerous.' His piercing blue eyes looked into mine. 'Always listen to yourself, Peekay. It is better
to be wrong than simply to follow convention. If you are wrong, no matter, you have learned some-
thing and you grow stronger. If you are right, you have taken another step toward a fulfilling life’
Inside all people there is love, also the need to take care of the other man who is his brother.
Inside everyone is a savage, but there is also happening tenderness and compassion
The rapacious white tribe who were arriving in increasing numbers, not only as convicts but also
as settlers, wanted to own everything they touched. They slashed and burned the wilderness so
that they might graze their sheep and grow their corn. They erected fences around the land they
now called their own and which henceforth they were prepared to defend with muskets and some-
times even their lives. They built church steeples and prison walls and homes of granite hewn from
the virgin rock and timber cut from the umbrageous mountain forests. They possessed everything
upon the island, the wild beasts that grazed upon its surface, the birds that flew over it, the fish that
swam in its rushing river torrents and the barking seals resting in the quiet bays and secluded inlets.
Everything they thought worthwhile was attached to the notion of ownership
Intelligence is a harder gift. For this you must work, you must practice it, challenge it, and maybe toward
the end of your life you will master it. Cleverness is the shadow, whereas intelligence is the substance
I wish to cup knowledge in my hand and drink it as one drinks water by the side of the stream
Bryce Courteney
South African born Australian novelist (The Power of one)
(Died 22/11/2012)
First with the head, then with the heart