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Post by Tamrin on Dec 27, 2013 9:42:12 GMT 10
Borrowers of books, those mutilators of collections, spoilers of the symmetry of shelves, and creators of odd volumes
Credulity is the man's weakness, but the child's strength
Don't introduce me to that man! I want to go on hating him, and I can't hate a man whom I know
Some people have a knack of putting upon you gifts of no real value, to engage you to substantial gratitude. We thank them for nothing
We gain nothing by being with such as ourselves. We encourage one another in mediocrity. I am always longing to be with men more excellent than myself
My theory is to enjoy life, but the practice is against it
Let us live for the beauty of our own realityCharles Lamb, English essayist (Died this day 1834) My motto is: Contented with little, yet wishing for more
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 27, 2013 9:42:58 GMT 10
If there is a supreme being, he's crazy
Superstitions are habits rather than beliefs
Sex. In America an obsession. In other parts of the world a fact
Until they come to see us from their planet, I wait patiently. I hear them saying: Don't call us, we'll call you
There is a gigantic difference between earning a great deal of money and being rich
I am at heart a gentleman
When you're dead, you're dead. That's itMarlene Dietrich, German-American actress and singer (Born this day 1901) Glamour is what I sell, it's my stock in trade
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 27, 2013 9:46:24 GMT 10
While I gave up God a long time ago, I never shook the habit of wanting to believe in something. So I replaced my creed of everlasting life with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
Being a nerd, which is to say going too far and caring too much about a subject, is the best way to make friends I know
Buffy's high school was built on top of a vortex of evil, the Hellmouth. And whose wasn't?
Except for the people who were there that one day they discovered the polio vaccine, being part of history is rarely a good idea. History is one war after another with a bunch of murders and natural disasters in between
I'm always disappointed when I see the word 'Puritan' tossed around as short- hand for a bunch of generic, boring, stupid, judgmental killjoys. Because to me, they are very specific, fascinating, sometimes brilliant, judgmental killjoys who rarely agreed on anything except that Catholics are going to Hell
I fear that the consumer who buys a Confederate flag coffee cup, which she will then put on her American flag place mat, is the sort of sophisticated thinker who is open-minded enough that she is capable of hating blacks and Arabs at the same time
The only thing more dangerous than an idea is a beliefSarah VowellUS author, journalist, essayist and social commentator ( This American Life) (Born this day 1969) I no longer drink nearly as much as I used to but, still, my motto is
Sine coffea nihil sum . Without coffee, I'm nothing
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 27, 2013 9:48:09 GMT 10
Do not speak of repulsive matters at table
Good manners have much to do with the emotions. To make them ring true, one must feel them, not merely exhibit them
Do not smoke without asking permission or sit so near (as in a train) that the smoke might annoy
Ceremony is-really a protection, too, in times of emotional involvement, particularly at death. If we have a social formula to guide us and do not have to extemporize, we feel better able to handle life
We must learn which ceremonies may be breached occasionally at our convenience and which ones may never be if we are to live pleasantly with our fellow man
Parents must get across the idea that “I love you always, but sometimes I do not love your behavior”
One face to the world, another at home makes for miseryAmy Vanderbilt, American authority on etiquette (Died this day 1974) I am a journalist in the field of etiquette. I try to find out what the most genteel people regularly do, what traditions they have discarded, what compromises they have made
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 28, 2013 6:15:51 GMT 10
Saturday’s Quotes:I am a good Protestant, and in the full sense of the term, for from the bottom of my soul, I protest against everything that is said, and everything that is done
Properly speaking, history is nothing but the crimes and misfortunes of the human race
If an historian were to relate truthfully all the crimes, weaknesses and disorders of mankind, his readers would take his work for satire rather than for history
The antiquity and general acceptance of an opinion is not assurance of its truth
It is pure illusion to think that an opinion that passes down from century to century, from generation to generation, may not be entirely false
There is not less wit nor less invention in applying rightly a thought one finds in a book, than in being the first author of that thought
It is thus tolerance that is the source of peace, and intolerance that is the source of disorder and squabblingPierre BayleFrench theologian ( History of Criticism) (Died this day 1706) I know too much to be a skeptic and too little to be a dogmatist
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 28, 2013 6:18:50 GMT 10
I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow
The object of education is not merely to draw out the powers of the individual mind: it is rather its right object to draw all minds to a proper adjustment to the physical and social world in which they are to have their life and their development: to enlighten, strengthen and make fit
Nothing is easier than to falsify the past. Lifeless instruction will do it. If you rob it of vitality, stiffen it with pedantry, sophisticate it with argument, chill it with unsympathetic comment, you render it as dead as any academic exercise
We want one class of persons to have a liberal education, and we want another class of persons, a very much larger class, of necessity, in every society, to forego the privileges of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks
There are two beings who assess character instantly by looking into the eyes, — dogs and children. If a dog not naturally possessed of the devil will not come to you after he has looked you in the face, you ought to go home and examine your conscience; and if a little child, from any other reason than mere timidity, looks you in the face, and then draws back and will not come to your knee, go home and look deeper yet into your conscience
No man can sit down and withhold his hands from the warfare against wrong and get peace from his acquiescence
If you want to make enemies, try to change somethingDr. Woodrow Wilson28 th President of the United States (1913–1921) (Born this day 1856) Unless justice be done to others it will not be done to us
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 28, 2013 6:19:32 GMT 10
A single breaker may recede; but the tide is coming in
The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out
More sinners are cursed at not because we despise their sins but because we envy their success at sinning
I would rather be poor in a cottage full of books than a king without the desire to read
A church is disaffected when it is persecuted, quiet when it is tolerated, and actively loyal when it is favored and cherished
We must judge of a form of government by its general tendency, not by happy accidents
Perhaps no person can be a poet, or can even enjoy poetry, without a certain unsoundness of mindThomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron MacaulayBritish poet, historian and Whig politician (Died this day 1859) I shall retire early; I am very tired(Last words)
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 28, 2013 6:20:37 GMT 10
Every body continues in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, except insofar as it doesn't
If your theory is found to be against the second law of theromodynamics, I give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation
It is also a good rule not to put overmuch confidence in the observat- ional results that are put forward until they are confirmed by theory
We often think that when we have completed our study of one we know all about two, because "two" is "one and one." We forget that we still have to make a study of "and"
It is impossible to trap modern physics into predicting anything with perfect determinism because it deals with probabilities from the outset
It is even possible that laws which have not their origin in the mind may be irrational, and we can never succeed in formulating them
Who will observe the observers?Sir Arthur EddingtonEnglish astrophysicist, cosmologist and mathematician (Born this day 1882) Oh leave the Wise our measures to collate. One thing at least is certain, light has weight. One thing is certain and the rest debate. Light rays, when near the Sun, do not go straight
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 28, 2013 6:21:09 GMT 10
One of the embarrassing problems for the early nineteenth- century champions of the Christian faith was that not one of the first six Presidents of the United States was an orthodox Christian
I find the selectivity of erotic love —the choice of this man or this woman — much more intelligible if liking the person is the origin of sexual interest, rather than the other way
I wonder if most people ever ask themselves why love is connected with reproduction. And if they do ask them- selves about this, I wonder what answer they give
One of the aims of sexual union is procreation — the creation by reproduction of an image of itself, of the union
Love wishes to perpetuate itself. Love wishes for immortality
Freedom is the emancipation from the arbitrary rule of other men
The philosopher ought never to try to avoid the duty of making up his mindMortimer AdlerUS philosopher, educator and author (Born this day 1902) Not to engage in the pursuit of ideas is to live like ants instead of like men
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 28, 2013 6:24:37 GMT 10
Persistent prophecy is a familiar way of assuring the event
It is because nations tend towards stupidity and baseness that mankind moves so slowly; it is because individuals have a capacity for better things that it moves at all
It is the mind which creates the world around us, and even though we stand side by side in the same meadow, my eyes will never see what is beheld by yours, my heart will never stir to the emotions with which yours is touched
For the man sound of body and serene of mind there is no such thing as bad weather; every day has its beauty, and storms which whip the blood do but make it pulse more vigorously
Money is time. With money I buy for cheerful use the hours which otherwise would not in any sense be mine; nay, which would make me their miserable bondsman
That is one of the bitter curses of poverty; it leaves no right to be generous
Flippancy, the most hopeless form of intellectual viceGeorge Gissing, English realist novelist (Died this day 1903) Have the courage of your desire
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